Baldric's Backstory
Baldric was born and raised an Icewalker in the lands of the North. He spent his childhood learning to hunt and fight, oblivious to the politics of the rest of the world. Shortly after his 21st birthday, he underwent the traditional trials of full citizenship of his tribe. While he owned his own property since the age of 16, at 21 there were a series of optional trials necessary to have a leadership rank, which he aspired to. While these were going on, a tidal wave struck the flat, icy expanse his tribe was situated on. He managed to avoid the brunt of it by diving into a series of tunnels involved in the trials. However, the situation turned out to be a lot more dire, as the glacial chunk cracked and started floating out to sea. Baldric quickly discovered that only a few members of his tribe had even survived the ordeal, and not nearly as well as he had. He tended to them as best he could, the deadly cold of the water quickly killing at least half of the survivors. Days passed and the situation worsened. The water had ruined most of the food and made it impossible to start a fire. By the time a ship appeared, a week later, Baldric was the only one left alive. Fate wasn't done yet, however. The ship belonged to Skullstone slavers. Seeing a weakened, yet clearly physically superior Icewalker was a little like finding a bar of gold floating in the ocean. Too weak to resist, Baldric was captured, restored to health, and put to work as an oarsman. The next year was not a fun one for Baldric. He was eventually traded to a military vessel, and a few months later, he saw his chance. It was night. The two overseers assigned to the oarsmen had gotten profoundly drunk the evening before, celebrating some minor victory, and Baldric's oar had been in poor condition for quite some time. Once one of the guards went topdeck to relieve himself, Baldric snapped the handle of his oar and drove it cleanly through the skull of the inebriated guard. Hushing the fellow slaves, he donned the guard's helm and axe, snuck up on the other guard, and cleaved him in two. He then armed the rest of the slaves and managed a relatively bloodless coup of the boat. Unfortunately, things weren't so simple. Most of the slaves had some idea of how to crew the ship, but they were ill-suited for such a task. The majority of them were former convicts, murderers, and thieves. When Baldric attempted to establish some order, they marooned him. Fortunately for Baldric, the crew didn't have the capacity to be picky about marooning locations. The island he was on had plenty of food and clean water. Three months later, Baldric had an impressive homemade schooner. Knowing it was probably going to get him killed, Baldric set sail. He had gathered nearly a thousand coconuts to float alongside his vessel, and was an expert fisherman. Several weeks later, he cam across another ship. More slavers. Baldric was ready this time. He feigned death until the slavers sent in a crew to investigate, at which he threw all three of them off the side into the water before they knew what was happening. Baldric quickly scampered up the side of the ship into a cannon port and removed the blocks holding the cannon in place, causing it to quickly fly through the ship's interior, taking out several slavers. The ship's status quickly turned to chaos, and after a lengthy fight, Baldric managed to singlehandedly wrest control of the ship. He promptly told the slaves who had assisted him to do what he said or they would be used as fish bait. He made his way south and met up with a proper pirate crew along the way. He traded control of his ship for a legitimate crew, and eventual passage to the South. Across the next year he would travel the seas a free man and respected pirate. Upon reaching the South, he disembarked on a featureless, sandy beach that seemed to stretch on forever. The pirates protested that he should wait until they reached the city, but he laughed them off. As the ship sailed off, a seagull landed before Baldric. It transformed into a muscular, well-armed warrior, with a feral look in his eyes. Without thinking, Baldric lept on this new challenge, wrestling with it. As he did so, he felt strength coursing through him. Finally pinning his opponent, he placed his long-stolen axe against its neck. "What are you?" he growled. "I am an Exalted Chosen of Luna," the man spoke, no fear in his voice. "And you, Baldric, have much to learn. Yet I think we have much to learn from you as well." He smiled. Baldric would later find out that he had just wrestled and pinned a prominent leader of the Silver Pact, a feat that hadn't been accomplished in over a decade. He would follow this man to the edge of Creation, where the Lunars hid amongst the Wyld. And he would watch as the Solars returned. Well, "watch" in the most active sense possible. Category:Baldric